Shadow Slave

With a faint smile on her face, Nephis nodded and raised her sword, pointing it at him in invitation. Sunny summoned the Sin of Solace and took a stance opposite her. From the Forgotten Shore to the basement of his home in the peaceful terrace district, they had trained with each other numerous times. This simple sequence of actions was as natural for them as breathing.

However, today, there was an awkward pause.

Sunny scratched the back of his head and glanced at the jade jian.

"That... isn't going to work, is it?"

Nephis seemed to have come to a similar conclusion, looking at him sheepishly.

'No, what the hell... since when does she know how to emote? This is just too cute...'

He coughed.

The problem facing them was that both had grown too powerful - and, subsequently, the weapons they used were too powerful, too. The Sin of Solace was a Transcendent Memory of the Fifth Tier, and quite a harrowing one at that. Sunny was not entirely sure what the level of Neph's longsword was, but it had to be quite a menacing weapon, as well, considering that it had come from the soul arsenal of a Saint.

It would be already bad enough if the Sin of Solace damaged or destroyed it. But what if Sunny was not careful enough and scratched Nephis in the process? The curse of madness carried by the jade blade would either crush her mental defenses, or at least put debilitating pressure on her mind for a period of time.

Standing some distance away, the spirit of the jian smiled.

"No, no. Don't worry... I'll be gentle."

However, that smile of his was more than a little bit sinister.

Sunny frowned, then dismissed the jade sword and got lost in thought for a few moments. Eventually, a smile of delight appeared on his lips.

"Let's do this."

toward him, then slowly formed into two inky black swords. One of them was a fearsome odachi, while the other was an

Sunny had practiced relentlessly, after all. The longsword was a little bit tricky, since he had never created one before. Nevertheless, he was familiar with it as well, and so managed to produce a passable one

a weapon would be easier than shaping them into articulated hands, since weapons

feel right in the hand - weight, balance, flexibility and rigidity, center of percussion that Neph had recently mentioned, and so on. It was especially daunting with something like the odachi, which possessed a flexible edge and

Clan Valor had

composition of the manifested shadows, although that demanded a higher essence expenditure. He could manipulate the

difficult to achieve, but after inventing Shadow Incarnation, Sunny made a breakthrough in his mastery of Shadow Manifestation as well. Now, it was much

was to

took the shadow weapon from his hand, he secretly held his breath. She weighed the black longsword,

"That works."

suppressed a proud smile and raised

"Let's begin, then."

Sin of Solace was a piece of art in the form of a jian, but Sunny's heart still lay with blades like this one. Maybe because it was what he had learned swordsmanship with, wielding Midnight Shard on the Forgotten Shore. Not to mention all the fun times he had had as Mongrel

the odachi slightly, Sunny pushed himself

a breathtaking dance of singing steel. Their swift figures blurred, and soon, nothing but a dark shape and a light shape could be seen, moving across the green moss as they weaved and circled around each other. It was as though two spirits were dancing under the bright light of

'She really has improved...'

had always been somewhat ineffable due to her eerie ability to control both the battlefield and the enemy, but now, there was an even more bizarre quality to her graceful

The cadence seemed the same.

familiar elements were somehow entirely different, and incredibly more dangerous. Her light steps never failed to deliver her into the best possible position to attack. Each strike packed a devastating punch that seemed too extreme even for an Ascended Terror. Her defense was nearly impenetrable, alternating between immovable hardness and inviting softness, which dissipated the force of Sunny's attacks and made him

was drowning in her flowing

is she

Neph had spoken about. The relationship between mass, acceleration, and force...

the ability to change his weight at will into his battle skill, so much so that it had become second nature to him. By manipulating how much his body,